Cybersecurity — be it protecting your personal information, like your social security number; protecting political elections from interference; or keeping enormous amounts of financial and credit data safe — is becoming more of a concern by the day.

In fact, CSO is predicting cyber crime damage costs are expected to soar to $6 trillion annually by 2021. And according to Cybersecurity Ventures’ “2017 Official Annual Cybercrime Report,” cybersecurity spending will exceed 1 trillion from 2017 to 2021.

As such, it seems you can’t pick up a newspaper, or turn on the TV, of visit a website — BTW, you know that website is probably collecting data on you as you click through, right? — without reading about the threats of cyber crime and cyber criminals.

Cyber criminals? Aren’t ‘physical’ criminals enough to deal with? A nice thought, yeah, but for dealerships, finance companies, credit bureaus and more players in the automotive space, the reality is quite different. In fact, cyber threats are top-of-mind for many of these institutions.

That’s why cybersecurity is a focus during the upcoming Used Car Week events, to be held Nov. 12-16, in Scottsdale, Ariz., with perspectives ranging from the FBI to credit bureaus — who are responsible for protecting millions of records that could make or break a consumers’ financial future.

First up, Chris Klingenspor, Senior Vice President of Global Services Risk at Equifax, will speak from experience as he launches the conference with a look at the state of cybersecurity. “The State of Cybersecurity, a Perspective Gained From Experience,” will focus on Equifax’ efforts over the past year on a number of key improvements in security. This follows the Equifax data breach of 2017, during which the company said personal information of as many as 143 million Americans was compromised. This breach brought cybersecurity to the forefront across industries and business sectors, as well as for Equifax itself. Through the presentation, Klingenspor will cover key lessons learned, how the company has engaged industry experts to assist in data security enhancements and more.

Used Car Week will also be privy to another unique perspective on cybersecurity through the lens of a retired FBI Special Agent, turned author, speaker and consultant. John Iannarelli will cover why cyber criminals are targeting banks, dealerships and auto-finance companies during the first block of Used Car Week (Auto Fin Con, Repo Con and Pre-Owned Con), and will explore cybersecurity for businesses during the NRC + NAAA conference later in the week. According to Iannarelli, thousands of businesses each year — a number which is growing — are victims of cybercrimes and are not equipped to protect themselves. And these cyber criminals are increasingly targeting banks, dealerships and auto-finance companies.

So, why all the focus on cybersecurity these days? One of the reasons, of course, is the explosive growth in data we have seen over the past decade — and it’s changing the way we do business. According to a recent McKinsey Analytics survey, nearly 50 percent of respondents said analytics and big data have fundamentally changed business practices in their sales and marketing functions.

Data centers and colocation providers can hardly keep up, and cloud providers like Amazon Web Services (AWS) are seeing a surge in usage. But with this data, comes a higher risk of cyber threat, as well as a bigger need for data protection.

But what also comes with data is huge potential for analytics to help solve business problems, as well as ways to improve financial performance for both consumers and businesses. Data and analytics, especially for the auto-finance industry, is another topic the team at Used Car Week is bringing to the forefront for its attendees.

One way data is being used to enhance auto finance is through the growing use of alternative data to gauge consumer risk. David Elmore, Clarity Automotive Solutions Consultant at Experian, will shed light on this topic with his workshop, “The Rise and Importance of Alternative Credit Data.” The session will explore how and why alternative credit data became necessary, as well as the difference between alternative data and alternative credit data.

Peter Oburu, VP, Data & Analytics, Auto, at Equifax, will also highlight this growing trend in an Auto Fin Con workshop, “The Whole Story — How Alternative Data Can Give Insight to Consumer Risk.” Mark down Oburu’s session if you are interested in learning more on how the use of alternative data in conjunction with traditional credit data has helped more accurately assess risk on buyers with varied profiles, including prime and deep subprime.

Turning the focus to analytics — the highly useful tools used to gain insight from large data sets — Solomon Semere, Director, Market Planning, at LexisNexis Risk Solutions, will be exploring how businesses can use analytics to grow confidently in new markets. Semere will be highlighting the latest data and modeling techniques that are being used by both sophisticated startups and large financial institutions.

It can’t be disputed: Data is being used to spur new innovation, insights and products. But the bottom line remains — if we can’t protect it; we can’t learn from it.